Center Partners in Program to Reach Potential Maryland Trustees
More than 45 Maryland community and business leaders recently took part in a new program to help hospitals increase board diversity and, ultimately, reduce disparities in health outcomes. The program, spearheaded by the AHA's Center for Healthcare Governance and Institute for Diversity in Health Management, works in partnership with the state, regional and metropolitan hospital associations to identify and recruit potential trustees. A one-day workshop explores the principles by which boards operate, trustees' roles and responsibilities, and the challenges and opportunities facing health care organizations. After the workshop, participants' names and resumes are entered in an online database that hospital leaders can search to identify potential board candidates. Local association leaders then work with hospitals and health systems in the area to facilitate placement.
The program is an outgrowth of the AHA's Special Advisory Group to Improve Hospital Care for Minorities -- a panel comprised of national leaders who represent civil rights organizations, hospitals, health care groups, public health, the federal government, academic medicine and health care researchers -- which seeks to determine how the hospital field can improve care for minorities and eliminate disparities in care. "To better address care disparities and to truly support diversity, we need diverse leaders at the hospital board table to raise the issues, guide their resolution, allocate the resources and create a more diverse sense of accountability to our communities," explained Carmela Coyle, president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association, which co-sponsored the Feb. 2 session along with the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene's Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities.
The program debuted last fall in Chicago and already has resulted in several placements among Chicago-area and national health system boards. Sharon Rossmark is among the Chicago workshop attendees who already have begun serving as hospital trustees. After retiring as assistant vice president for agency distribution for Allstate Insurance Company, Rossmark sought a new challenge. A veteran of several local not-for-profit organization boards, she became interested in health care after helping her parents and parents-in-law navigate the elder care system.
"From my standpoint, the complexity of health care and the Medicare process for seniors is just overwhelming," Rossmark explained. "I don't know how my parents and my in laws, who we're helping manage the process, would survive without us… It just seems like it could be so much simpler."
Her background also led her to want to focus on inner-city hospitals and their unique challenges. "I grew up in southern Illinois, in East St. Louis, and I'm very familiar with the issues around health care disparities in inner-city markets, and I've experienced that side of the coin through the years."
According to Rossmark, the AHA program not only met, but exceeded her expectations.
"The program to-date has played a specific role in preparing me to serve on a hospital board in two ways. First, the facilitators were best-in-class, both in their knowledge and their ability to create a powerful learning environment and their ability to fully engage participants throughout the session," Rossmark said. "Second, since then the program has helped me understand the critical success factors for being an effective hospital trustee. The ongoing educational opportunities they've had through teleconferences and [other offerings] have helped me expand my knowledge and gain insight into the trends in health care."
Rossmark was among the first program participants to receive an invitation to join a hospital board. At a networking reception following the Chicago workshop, she met with the CEO and representatives from Sinai Health System, a system providing medical care and social services to some of Chicago's neediest communities. With her mix of business skills, trustee experience and interest, she was deemed a perfect fit. Although there has been a learning curve, Rossmark said the experience so far has been rewarding and encourages others considering hospital board service to consider the AHA program.
"For me it's always about fully engaging," Rossmark said. "You get out of it what you put into it. You have to have a passion for it because it's such a tough and comprehensive set of issues surrounding health care in this country. You can't be on a board for the sake of sitting on a board. You have to have a passion for wanting to be a part of the solution."
Future trustee sessions are planned for South Florida, New York, New Jersey, Denver and Los Angeles. For more information about the program and the trustee candidate registry, visit www.americangovernance.com/MTCR.
Photos: (Top left) AHA President and CEO Rich Umbdenstock welcomes attendees to the workshop. (Middle right) Ben Mason, chairman of Bon Secours Baltimore Health System, and Manervia Riddick, treasurer for the Fort Washington (MD) Medical Center’s board, answer questions about board service. (Bottom Left) Sharon Rossmark, Sinai Health System Board of Trustees.
